GRANDPA ENGLAND

Yo what's up, insanely slow week again and tough week for the work but this week will be good - trust!  We only have one more week left in the transfer and it's crazy that it's ending. Even though the past 2 weeks have gone slower, the transfer has really slipped away from me. We have been super focused on visiting members and inactive members these past couple of weeks and it has been fun but really taken a hit on the datos for the week.

Also, this week my grandpa England passed away. If you know who Gene England was you know he was a man of joy, integrity, love, and humility. A couple weeks ago he hit his 105th birthday. I couldn't be more proud of the life that he lived and the example he was to the world. When I think about him living from 1919-2024, I can't imagine what his eyes have seen. He drove trucks with his father C.R. at 14 years old with his brother. He went to Japan and fought in World War II.  During that time, he sold his cigarette rations and came back with $5,000 (which in today's money would be around $100,000). He came back and bought a truck for the company and the rest is history. I dream to be half the man my grandfather was. Not so much about worldly possessions or experiences, but more in how he was nothing but righteous. The last words he said were “Think Celestial” and I hope to love and lead as he did. 

The mission has brought such happiness to me in my life and losing a loved one is not fun. However, the knowledge we have of the gospel helps me realize that wow, my Grandpa is way closer to me now than he ever was on earth. I thank my Heavenly Father for this knowledge and I hope to share this joy with each and every one of you. God KNOWS you and LOVES you. He has a plan for us and it is perfect. Trust him and find the joy as Christ would.

Love you all and stay safe

Scripture of the Week:

Alma 36:22 “Yea, me thought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; yea, and my soul did long to be there.”

Alma 36:22 “Sí, me pareció ver —así como nuestro padre Lehi vio— a Dios sentado en su trono, rodeado de innumerables concursos de ángeles en actitud de estar cantando y alabando a su Dios; sí, y mi alma anheló estar allí”

    REMEMBER LOT'S WIFE

Patzun

Super Long week this week. Definitely missed home more than usual haha. We made great progress with a lot of people this week and a lot of others not so much. I feel like I have forgotten how to work and how to baptize lol. However, we have found people who show so much potential and I really think we can get them before the transfer ends. They are the in-laws of one of our members. The member grew up in the church and her whole family are members but she married an Evangelical guy and his whole family is Evangelical as well. She gave us dinner and we ended up meeting the family. We started talking about the plan of Salvation and they were super excited about it. We went back the next day and we had prepared a great lesson for them. We introduced the Book of Mormon and taught the plan of Salvation using scriptures from the Bible and the Book of Mormon for every principle that we taught. They loved it. They had SO many questions and we were able to answer their questions and they genuinely felt a huge interest in our message. We testified of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and invited them to pray about it. They asked us a very important question. How have you guys felt God answer your prayers? We talked about how there are so many different ways to receive answers and revelation but that if you trust God and only ask Him, you will know, and when you know, do not be scared to accept the truth. 

I have seen hundreds of people throughout my mission feel the spirit, know it was the spirit, and reject it afterwards because they were scared to accept the truth. I had an experience with a family that told me that they weren't going to read the Book of Mormon because they knew they were going to find the truth. Conversion is hard, I don't blame them. I see myself in a lot of these people. Sometimes I don't trust God enough to convert me, or I do, and that's why I don't listen. There's an amazing BYU speech by Jeffrey R. Holland that is titled “Remember Lot's Wife”. I invite all of you guys to listen to it, and ask yourself the question, “What is something important to me that I need to leave behind because God has asked me to?” 

Love you all and I promise as we look forward with confidence in ourselves and in our Heavenly Father, we will find more happiness than what we would have left behind. 

Remember Lot's Wife: 

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/jeffrey-r-holland/remember-lots-wife/

Scripture of the Week:

Luke 17:32: “Remember Lot’s wife”

Lucas 17:32: “Acordaos de la mujer de Lot”

Saw Hermana Cylda at the temple!  

I baptized her a year ago

    PROGRESS

Emma's baptism

What’s up everyone, hope you’re all doing super good. This week has actually been super good. The time here has been flying like crazy. We are about halfway done with the transfer and not gonna lie, I’ve been a little bit scared and nervous. When I got here I felt such a big motivation to get here, baptize and make a mark immediately. Here we are halfway through the transfer and we haven’t even set a baptism date yet. I’ve been kinda stressing out and don’t want to end the transfer without making progress in the area. However, super fun little baptism for our little sister Emma. She was so cute. Inactive mom, started visiting them and taught her all the lessons and then she elected me to baptize her. She is so cute and it was fun to be able to get in the water for the first time since Milagro. She was 8 years old so it technically didn’t count for the mission but it still counted in my heart. She’s the best. Little baptism drought since Michael 2 months ago and a month before that was the last one but it’s chill. We starting to grind again.

The little thought I wanted to give this week is about progress. I look back at old photos on google photos and don’t feel like appearance wise I’ve changed very much but my nature, habits, my thoughts, and everything has obviously changed so much. But lately I have been feeling that the past 2 and a half transfers I haven’t felt as much progress. I haven’t felt like I have been learning as much Spanish or learning much from the scriptures and lessons as I used to at the start of the mission. (I attached a link to the video so watch it and you’ll know what I mean when I say I kinda felt like I just looked forward into the cloud instead of walking forward). Almost like I just took a break and took a little nap. I now feel like I have started to walk forward again in faith and it feels a lot better.

I realized freak, I’m not always going to be on the mission! I was kinda upset that I wasn’t making as much progress or learning as much as I did at the beginning of the mission. So I realized just how hard it is going to be to progress at home. With work, school, sports, constant temptations and little by little slowing down until we eventually just stop in the cloud. Sometimes we(I) just do not trust what our Father in Heaven has in store for us(me) and we stop. Stop praying at night and in the morning. We stop reading the scriptures. We stop going to church. and eventually we START doing things that we shouldn’t. We get selfish, lazy, faithless, and eventually start to lose the testimony we once had. DON’T DO THAT. I promise it does not bring happiness or solutions. It brings sadness and more problems disguised as temporary “happiness”.

Wether you are homesick on the mish or are questioning if the church is true, or if you are the bishop of a ward, keep going and always remember that you can always progress. You will find what you look for.  If you look for eternal happiness, you will find it. If you look for the temporal happiness, you will find it. I trust you all to pick the one Jesus wants you to.

Be safe, love you hear from you all next week

Link to the video:

Patterns of Light: Spirit of Revelation

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/video/inspirational-messages/2012-01-012-patterns-of-light-spirit-of-revelation?lang=eng

Scripture of the Week:

Alma 32:26 “Now, as I said concerning faith—that it was not a perfect knowledge—even so it is with my words. Ye cannot know of their surety at first, unto perfection, any more than faith is a perfect knowledge”

Alma 32:26 “Pues como dije acerca de la fe, que no era un conocimiento perfecto, así es con mis palabras. No podéis, al principio, saber a la perfección acerca de su veracidad, así como tampoco la fe es un conocimiento perfecto”

So tired

La Dentista